Treadmill having exercise motivation inducing function

ABSTRACT

There is provided a treadmill having an exercise motivation inducing function, which comprises: an interface to control the degree of difficulty of exercise, a driving unit to be driven according to the degree of difficulty controlled by the interface, and a control unit to control a gift provider to differentially provide a gift according to the degree of difficulty controlled by the interface. The treadmill motivates a user to receive a predetermined gift after finishing exercise, thereby inducing a positive attitude on exercise to a user disliking exercise. Furthermore, the treadmill adds the fun of exercise so that a user does exercise of her/his own free will, thereby contributing to the improvement of her/his physical constitution.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims the benefit of Korean Patent Application No.10-2007-0015701, filed Feb. 15, 2007, the disclosure of which is herebyincorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Technical Field

The present invention relates to a treadmill inducing a positiveattitude on exercise to a user who does not like exercise, by motivatingthe user to receive a predetermined gift when (s)he finishes exercise,and more particularly, to a treadmill having an exercise motivationinducing function, which comprises an interface to control the degree ofdifficulty of exercise, a driving unit to be driven by the degree ofdifficulty controlled by the interface, and a control unit to control agift provider to differentially provide a gift according to the degreeof difficulty controlled by the interface.

2. Discussion of Related Art

It has been reported that Korean people have very increasingly died fromhigh blood pressure, diabetes and heart disease by the hardening of thearteries (myocardial infarction), breast cancer and colon cancer. Fromthis report, it is noted that the pattern of diseases has changed tothose of advanced countries. The change in the pattern of disease isrelated to the tendency that an overweight population is sharplyincreasing as the standard of living is improved. It is not too much tosay that the change in the pattern of disease is also related to lack ofexercise for a long time due to the development of modern conveniences.

Further, the Korean overweight population (about 20%) is not seriouscompared to the western advanced countries. However, many Korean youngladies tend to excessively reduce their weight for appearance not forhealth and, taking advantage of such a tendency, unscientific methodswhich are likely to injure health have prevailed in the indifference ofexperts. Thus, these tendencies have become serous threats to nationalhealth. Further, the people of abdominal region fatness, which is knownas a major dangerous factor of diabetes, heart disease and the like,have gradually increased, and the number of overweight children has alsosharply increased. In view of these tendencies, there is a highpossibility that obesity may be a major health problem of the nation inthe future.

Most desirably, obesity which injures the health of modern people shouldbe solved by exercise. However, people would neglect exercise by thereasons that exercise is hard and effects of exercise slowly progressdespite of the hardness of the exercise. Therefore, the presentapplicant has tried to find an apparatus making it interesting toexercise.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Therefore, the present invention is directed to provide a treadmillhaving an exercise motivation inducing function by adding the fun ofexercise to provide a reward for the extent of everyday exercise to anumber of overweight patients, to solve obesity in the long term.

In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, the present inventionprovides to a treadmill having an exercise motivation inducing function,which comprises: an interface to control the degree of difficulty ofexercise; a driving unit to be driven by the degree of difficultycontrolled by the interface; and a control unit to control a giftprovider to differentially provide a gift according to the degree ofdifficulty controlled by the interface.

Preferably, the driving unit may comprise: guide frames positioned atboth lower sides of the treadmill; a belt positioned between the guideframes and rotated by a driven roller and a driving roller, along acaterpillar tread; a power unit to apply power to the driving roller; anangle controller to vary a vertical position of one side of the guideframe; a fixation frame securely interposed within the belt so as not tointerfere the rotation of the driving roller and driven roller, so thatboth sides of the fixation frame are fixed in the guide frames; and apressure sensor positioned on the fixation frame, to sense pressure.

Preferably, the degree of difficulty may be determined, by independentlysetting the rotation speed, number of rotation times, driving time,angle control of the driving unit or by setting a combination thereof.

Preferably, the gift provider may comprise a touch or non-touch typecard terminal, and the gift may be provided when reaching a set value ofthe degree of difficulty by the interface.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other features and advantages of the present inventionwill become more apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art bydescribing in detail preferred embodiments thereof with reference to theattached drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a front view of a treadmill having an exercise motivationinducing function according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a side view of the treadmill; and

FIG. 3 is a schematic flow chart of a control unit of the treadmill.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention will now be described more fully hereinafter withreference to the accompanying drawings, in which preferred embodimentsof the invention are shown.

FIG. 1 is a front view of a treadmill having an exercise motivationinducing function according to an embodiment of the present invention,FIG. 2 is a side view of the treadmill, and FIG. 3 is a schematic flowchart of a control unit of the treadmill.

As illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2, the treadmill having the exercisemotivation inducing function (hereinafter, referred to as the ‘treadmill10”) comprises an interface 20, a driving unit, a gift provider 30, anda control unit (not shown) to control the driving unit and the giftprovider 30 operated by the interface.

The driving unit comprises guide frames 41, a driven roller 42, adriving roller 43, a belt 44, a power unit (not shown), an anglecontroller (not shown), a fixation frame 47, and a pressure sensor 48and positioned at the lower of the treadmill 10.

The belt 44 is configured to rotate about the driving roller 43 and thedriven roller 42 and to make a caterpillar tread type rotation by thepower unit to driving the driven roller 42. The guide frames 41 securethe driven roller 42, the driving roller 43 and both sides of thefixation frame 47 interposed within the belt 44 and maintain the entirebalance of the treadmill 10.

The fixation frame 47 is provided to prevent the belt 44 from being hungdown and loosened by the gravity or the weight of a user and maintainsthe entire balance of the treadmill 10, works with the guide frames 41.

The angle controller uses a device which is included in an ordinarytreadmill to increase the degree of difficulty of exercise bycontrolling an angle of inclination. The angle controller controls thedegree of difficulty of exercise by varying the perpendicularity of oneside of the guide frame 41 and making the angle of inclination from theground surface by the operatively connected driving roller 43 and belt44.

The driving roller 43 is configured to be connected to the power unit(not shown, which may be a motor). When the power unit rotates, thedriving roller 43 connectively operated to the power unit andconsequently, the belt 44 is rotated by the rotation of the drivingroller 43.

The interface 20 is provided with various buttons to control therotation speed, number of rotation times, driving time and angle controlof the belt 44 of the driving unit, by connectively operating to thecontrol unit.

For example, when a speed UP button, among the speed control buttons ofthe interface 20, is pressed, a signal of the speed UP button is appliedto the control unit, and the control unit drives the power unit of thedriving unit to speed up, based on the signal. To the contrary, when aspeed DOWN button, among the speed control buttons of the interface 20,is pressed, a signal of the speed DOWN button is applied to the controlunit, and the control unit drives the power unit of the driving unit tospeed down, based on the signal.

The interface 20 is provided with angle UP and DOWN buttons, a timesetting button, a distance setting button and others, in addition to thespeed UP and DOWN buttons. Accordingly, the different degrees ofdifficulty of exercise can be set by the control unit, by operating anindividual button or a combination of buttons.

When the driving unit is operated and the pressure is applied to thebelt 44, the pressure sensor 48 is operated until the operation of thedriving unit stops. When the pressure is sensed, the pressure sensor 48provides a sensed signal to the control unit.

The gift provider 30 is configured to differentially provide a gift forthe degree of difficulty of exercise according to the button operationof the interface 20. The gift provider 30 comprises a touch type ornon-touch type card terminal. The gift provider 30 may be configured toprovide cash (gift certificate) or a wrapped gift. However, in orderthat the gift provider 30 provides a gift, some requirements should besatisfied by the pressure sensor 48 and the control unit.

The requirements for providing a gift will be described later. The touchtype or non-touch type card terminal included in the gift provider 30 isan ordinary card terminal distributed in markets. The touch type cardterminal may be a terminal to recognize magnetically recordedinformation of a card, which is generally used in a credit cardterminal, and the non-touch type card terminal may be a terminal torecognize radio wave information using a semiconductor chip, which isused in a bus. Therefore, no further detailed description of the cardterminal will be presented. The effects upon use of the card terminalwill be described below.

When the treadmill 10 with the touch or non-touch type card terminal isused in a commercial place like a fitness club, only a member owning amembership card can operate the treadmill 10. When the member owns themembership card but has no record of using the treadmill 10, it isconsidered that the member does not use the treadmill 10. In this case,a monthly using fee for the member can be discounted, considering thereduction of electric charges, the depreciation expense and others.Otherwise, an event can be held to discount membership fee to memberswho own the membership card and most use the treadmill 10 for one month,to induce the health promotion of the member.

A method of operating the treadmill 10 will be described with referenceto FIG. 3 below.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart of schematically showing an operational flow ofthe control unit of the treadmill 10. When a user sets an exerciseenvironment by using various buttons of the interface 20 at step S10,the control unit reads the degree of difficult of the exerciseenvironment at steps S20 and S25 and drives the driving unit at stepS30.

The degree of difficulty of the exercise environment can be variouslychanged as the user sets the exercise environment at step S10, forexample, inclination angle: level, speed: 1 km per hour, time: 30minutes, distance: 500 m (lowest grade), or inclination angle: 5°,speed: 3 km per hour, time 1 hour, distance: 5 km (fourth grade).

If the driving unit stops driving, the control unit determines whether aset value for the exercise environment is completed at step S40. Whenthe set value is not completed, the control unit continuously drives thedriving unit. When the set value is completed, the control unit checkswhether a signal has continuously received from the pressure sensor 48during the operation of the driving unit at step S50. When the signalhas continuously received from the pressure sensor 48, the control unitprovides a gift according to the set value of the exercise environmentat step S60. However, when the signal has not continuously received fromthe pressure sensor 48 during the operation of the driving unit, thecontrol unit does not provide any gift and ends.

The treadmill having the exercise motivation inducing function accordingto the embodiment of the present invention provides the people dislikingexercise or overweight patients with the fun of exercise and induces apositive attitude on exercise, to solve the obesity of the overweightpatients in the long term.

Furthermore, the treadmill induces people to exercise who dislikeexercise, to promote the physical health. In a broad view, the treadmillcontributes to the improvement of the nation health. Therefore, it isobvious to derive many effects from the treadmill of the presentinvention. The invention has been described using a preferred exemplaryembodiment. However, it is to be understood that the scope of theinvention is not limited to the disclosed embodiments. On the contrary,the scope of the invention is intended to include various modificationsand alternative arrangements within the capabilities of persons skilledin the art using presently known or future technologies and equivalents.The scope of the claims, therefore, should be accorded the broadestinterpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and similararrangements.

1. A treadmill (10) having an exercise motivation inducing function,comprising: an interface (20) to control the degree of difficulty ofexercise; a driving unit to be driven by the degree of difficultycontrolled by the interface; and a control unit to control a giftprovider (30) to differentially provide a gift according to the degreeof difficulty controlled by the interface.
 2. The treadmill according toclaim 1, wherein the driving unit comprises: guide frames (41)positioned at both lower sides of the treadmill; a belt (44) positionedbetween the guide frames (41) and rotated by a driven roller (42) and adriving roller (43), along a caterpillar tread; a power unit to applypower to the driving roller (43); an angle controller to vary a verticalposition of one side of the guide frame (41); a fixation frame (47)securely interposed within the belt (44) so as not to interfere therotation of the driving roller (43) and driven roller (42), so that bothsides of the fixation frame (47) are fixed to the guide frames (41); anda pressure sensor (48) positioned on the fixation frame (47) so as tosense pressure.
 3. The treadmill according to claim 2, wherein thedegree of difficulty is determined by independently setting the rotationspeed, number of rotation times, driving time and angle control of thedriving unit or by setting a combination thereof.
 4. The treadmillaccording to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the gift provider (30)comprises a touch or non-touch type card terminal, and the gift isprovided when reaching a set value of the degree of difficulty by theinterface (20).